What accounts for the company's success?
1. Stage Shadows can draw on a rich array of talent. It can rely on an ever-expanding pool of writers, actors, directors and technical experts. In its commitment to present only high quality scripts, Stage Shadows has tapped the skills of such noted practitioners of the craft as John Lutz (author of Single White Female), Henry Slesar (author of hundreds of Alfred Hichcock Presents and Twilight Zone episodes) and Peabody Award Winning Arch Oboler, (author of the famous classic radio 'Lights Out' series). Participating actors - over 100 of them to date - have garnered impressive credentials on the Off- and Off-Off-Broadway stage. Many audition and perform on a regular basis. And as the reputation of Stage Shadows grew it began to attract some of the best-known names in theater. Only recently Brian Murray (three-time Drama Desk Award winner) appeared with Tammy Grimes (two-time Tony Award winner) in the production of Oboler's drama Cat Wife. The company has an added advantage in that it is based in New York City with its abundance of theaters, film and acting studios and universities that serve as incubators for talent.
2. Stage Shadows' performances offer audiences a rich mix of voice, music and sound effects to create a total audio experience enhanced by the museum's cutting edge audio equipment.
3. Stage Shadows is constantly innovating. Instead of attempting to resurrect old time radio dramas the company is looking to the future. And the future is the Internet and other media that will soon be beamed or wired into every American household. The future is a worldwide audience able to access Stage Shadows with a click of a mouse. In keeping with its forward look, Stage Shadows is actively seeking scripts that will exploit the technical and production opportunities inherent in these new media. While the company is always interested in scripts by established authors, it is also eager to develop promising new writers as well. But in all cases the most important consideration is quality.
Why is the time ripe for Audio Theater?
When TV came along everyone said that radio was finished and then when videocassettes appeared on the scene people predicted that movies would languish for want of an audience. Now that the use of the Internet has exploded experts are warning that TV watching will drastically decline. And, of course, there was a common agreement that no one would ever read anymore. But what happened?
As it turns out, most people simply added the latest medium to their arsenal of news and entertainment sources. One observer calls this phenomenon 'oceanic' - the media, in whatever form, are all around us and we can pick and choose what we want, as often as we want. And that goes especially for media that where sound takes center stage. As evidence, sales of books on tape soared to an all-time high last year. Even a visually oriented medium like TV is beginning to take note. A regularly scheduled show of staged readings, featuring Star Trek's Leonard Nemoy, is enjoying popular success on the Sci Fi channel. And no less than 24 Web sites offer original radio drama
- with more being added all the time. But there is nothing out there like Stage Shadows. For one thing, Stage Shadows has already laid the groundwork in terms of the talent it can call upon. For another, it has acquired a valuable back list of professionally mastered tapes that are available for immediate distribution in a variety of outlets. Because Audio Theater is so versatile, these plays can be played by both commuters driving home from work and people surfing the Web on their computers.
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